Precursor Artifacts
by ElementalRemix
Summary: An accident in Suna leads to young Naruto using Eco instead of Chakra, almost forcing him to forget his dream of becoming Hokage. But with an ancient artifact by his side and the Precursor technology at his finger tips, will Naruto find a way to continue on?
1. Chapter 1

**And so with the begging of my brother, I release this horrible spawn of my insanity. A Naruto and Jak and Daxter crossover. I'm going to be introducing some new Eco types, and new mods for the Morph Gun so be prepared for that. Naruto will be using Eco and Jak and Daxter will not be the main characters. So just saying, enjoy and I would love to see more of this crossover type!**

 **For all of you worrying, no I'm not giving up on my other story but I'm starting this for my bro. And with that said I introduce...**

 **Precursor Artifacts**

 **Chapter One**

Naruto Uzumaki, age 5 had currently heard about his grandfather figure who was going to be leaving in a week for Suna. Naturally the small boy wasn't going to let the old man off without a goodbye or even better yet, Naruto was going to Suna with the old man.

The young boy had naturally tan skin from being out in the sun often, along with sunny blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Three marks resembling whiskers on each cheek completed the look for his face while he wore a white shirt with a black swirl on it and blue shorts. He wore typical shinobi sandals and his cheerful and sunny disposition on anything was only dwarfed by the sun itself.

Naruto Uzumaki, despite being an orphan was the happiest child in the entire elemental nations, and nobody could take that title away from him. Said child was currently running through the crowd towards the Hokage tower, to ask his grandfather figure if he could come along on the trip to Suna. People cleared a path for the excited boy and he quickly made headway.

Bursting through the door to the Hokage tower, Naruto rushed past the Hokage's secretary and into the office itself. He didn't bother knocking, and people had learned to be prepared to face Naruto at all costs. The only time that Naruto knew it wasn't safe to enter the office was when the four Anbu who were normally guarding the Hokage were outside of the office.

But today was a safe time and he burst into the office, suprising the Hokage who was smoking from his pipe, on his lunch break.

"Old man! I want to come with you to Suna!" Naruto didn't bother warming up, he was never that kind of person. He liked rushing head first into things just like he was rushing head first into the conversation that could quite literally change his life.

"Naruto! What have I told about rushing into my office?" Hiruzen tried to console Naruto on just rushing into things and as usual, it didn't work.

"I don't remember, but I want to go to Suna with you!" Naruto jumped up into Hiruzen's lap and started childishly hitting the old Hokage's chest with his tiny fists.

"Now Naruto why would you want to go to Suna with me? It is very hot and dry there and I don't think that you would enjoy it."

"But I don't want you to leave, and I figured that if I'm going to be Hokage then I need to know what the other villages look like!" Naruto, despite being a 5 year old was very smart for his age and he put up a rather decent argument.

"Are you sure Naruto? Will you be on your best behavior Naruto? Suna is much more strict that Konoha and they won't appreciate it if you break their rules."

Naruto looked up in thought before he nodded, "I'll be on my best behavior old man! You can bet on that!" Naruto cheered excitedly. Hiruzen simply smiled and nodded before speaking again.

"Alright Naruto, be prepared to leave in about a week, I'll see if one of the Anbu wants to carry you seeing as we will be traveling at shinobi speeds. Think you can handle that?" Hiruzen asked, putting a hand on Naruto head of spikey hair.

"Yeah I can do that old man, you can bet on that!"

 **-Front Gates- Konoha- One Week Later**

Naruto bounced up and down on the balls of his feet, he was an hour early and he was waiting for the Hokage and his protection detail of Anbu to arrive. He had provided the chunin who were stuck with gate duty with entertainment as they tried to keep up with the number of times he could bounce the balls of his feet.

He hadn't stopped for the hour that he was waiting, he was just so excited! So when he saw the Hokage making his way down the street, greeting people and saying good bye to the ninja Naruto could not help but bound over. Tackling the old man, Naruto was enveloped in a warm hug from the elderly Hokage before he was set down.

"Have you been waiting for long Naruto?" Hiruzen asked, and his question was answered by the chunin at the gate.

"He's been here for 60 minutes solid and he's managed to bounce nearly 10 thousand times." the chunin said before he leaned back in the chair. Hiruzen raised an eyebrow at Naruto, who was now busy crawling up an Anbu trying to unmask them, and failing to do so.

"And you brought your own things, good job Naruto. Let Dog put the bag into a storage scroll for you."

"What's a storage scroll?" Naruto asked, handing the bag over the dog masked Anbu who sealed the bag into the small scroll which he tucked into the pocket of Naruto's shorts.

"A storage scroll allows you to store items that you would not other wise be able to store on your person. You only need to channel a bit of chakra and the scroll should be able to seal anything that would fit into the scroll or take anything in the scroll out."

"Teach me how to make one Dog!" Naruto hopped on the dog masked Anbu's back, and the man could only chuckled as he gave Naruto a piggy back. The small team consisting of Dog, Weasel, Stag, and Bear headed out with the Hokage to Suna. Naruto cheering at Dog to go faster, obviously enjoying the winds whipping by his face at high speeds. The whole team of Anbu and the Hokage couldn't help but smile at the childs antics. Hell it was hard not to be caught up in Naruto's little aura of happiness and not smile.

You had to either be super depressed, or mentally insane not to smile at the little ball of sunshine. Dog did some flips and Naruto cheered even louder, whooping and hollering at the ride that he was experiencing. It was like nothing he'd ever done before seeing as he was only five and it was impossible for him to pull something like that off.

Traveling at Anbu speeds for most of the day, the group made it a third of the way to Suna. It was in a nice flat spot that they set up camp, seeing as the Hokage didn't want to feel pampered and he would rather just camp it out like so many ninja's did. The Hokage position was really just a glorified spot for a figure head and the victim of stacks and stacks of paper work.

Most of dinner time was Naruto trying to perfect a sealing scroll that he'd seen before. Dog was helping him through the process. Although it was more of a process of watching Naruto perfectly draw a storage seal on his right hand with his non-dominant left hand which was impressive in itself. It took serious skill to draw seals in the first place, it was simply astounding to see a five year old draw a storage seal on their first try.

Hiruzen could only nod to himself, both his parents were seals masters so it was kind of given that their son would also be a natural at dealing with the most complicated ninja art that there was. Dog drew out Naruto's bag and they tested the new seal and it worked. That was simply amazing, even Weasel was stunned and almost nothing got the Anbu Captain.

And with the entertainment of the night tiring out, Naruto fell asleep in one of the tents and the Anbu started a cycle of watch as the Hokage retired for the night.

 **Suna Gates- 2 days later**

Naruto was pretty much treating Dog like a horse by the time that they got to the gates of Suna but the moment that the chunin met them, Naruto got off of Dog and started acting all prim and proper. He stood up straight and stood still by Dog.

The Anbu were impressed that the energetic boy was able to rein it in and keep still. Although that would probably change by the time that they got to the hotel room.

"Welcome Hokage, the Kazekage has been expecting you. We humbly request that your Anbu guard remain out of sight along with your guest."

Hiruzen nodded before turning around and pushing a few bills of ryo into Naruto's hand, "Please try not to spend it all on one place." Hiruzen stood up and faced Dog who nodded at the silent request. If one could see behind the mask then they could see Dog's eyes which said that he would watch over Naruto. And with that Naruto was left to wander the city under the watchful eye of Dog, while Hiruzen headed for the Kazekage building in order to discuss the treaty.

Naruto of course let his excitment loose when he started looking around Suna, his bright clothes and lack of desert garb attracted quite a bit of attention. Although when some of the shinobi spotted the Anbu that was staying out of sight of the civilians then they knew that the boy wasn't to be messed with. The shinobi left him alone and to the civilians he was simply another tourist and they simply smiled at the young boy who seemed to bring joy and cheer wherever he was.

It was a change from the fear that they had of Gaara, who had just killed his fifth that week. Nobody could seem to touch him due to the fact that the sand always protected him and since half of Suna was pretty much solid sand, the other half was sandstone, Gaara was pretty much untouchable.

Naruto went from shop to shop looking around, seeing what Suna had to offer and to the young boy it was pretty impressive. He didn't know what he wanted to do first, even though it was rather hot and dry in the desert he didn't seem to mind. Hell to Dog it looked like the heat didn't even phase the young boy as he walked around Suna without sweating a drop. It amazed some of the Suna civilians as well, they just couldn't believe that one so young could adapt to the heat so quick.

Some people who were living in the desert heat all their life couldn't still get over how dry it was in Suna.

Naruto wandered until he took a rest at a local playground, where he noticed something that he found to be interesting. So Naruto sat back and watched what was going on.

"Where'd the ball go?" a few kids ran into the park, where a single red headed boy was waiting with the ball in hand.

The boy didn't say a word, but the other kids noticed the boy. At the sight of him the children froze and slowly began to back up.

"Oh, that's okay... you can keep the ball!" the children yelled as they began to run away from the poor red head. Naruto found that to be kind of sad, and so he hopped off of the bench and he walked over ot the red head.

"Hey want to play ball?" Naruto put his hand on the boys shoulder and the boy turned around.

"You would do that with me?" the boy said quietly, obviously not used to being touched or talked to.

"Yeah, I would. So do you want to play? I"m Naruto by the way." Naruto smiled and the boy also smiled although not as brightly.

"My name is Gaara, and yeah I would love to play." again it was said quietly but Naruto backed off and they began kicking the ball back and forth. Dog could only smile, it was nice to see that Naruto had made a friend in another village, it would be a sad break up when they left but hopefully this was the kind of friendship that lasted despite the distance and village difference.

 **Suna-4 Hours Later- Quicksand Pits**

Somehow the little game of kick the ball around had migrated from the playground to the equivalent of Konoha's forest of death, the Suna Quicksand Pits. For Gaara the last four hours had been the best of his life he had a friend. He'd never played ball before, but Naruto had been kind and accommodating and had been patient with Gaara. Gaara couldn't believe that he had his first friend. Granted Gaara was not stupid and knew that Naruto wasn't from the village, his clothing and the fact that the Anbu was trailing him was big signs.

Although for reasons that Gaara couldn't fathom, the Anbu wasn't paying attention to them. Not like it mattered anyways seeing as he got to play with Naruto for a little more. It would be until some ninja came to drag Gaara back to the house when they couldn't play for the rest of the day. Naruto returned the ball a little hard and to the right, allowing for it to sail right over the fence and into the QuickSand Pits.

"Don't worry Gaara! I'll go get that ball for us!" Naruto said as he ran right into the field of the Quicksand Pits. He grabbed the ball easily, and waved back to Gaara who smiled and motioned for Naruto to come back. As fate would have it, a random whirlpool of quicksand opened underneath Naruto. Naruto didn't stand a chance, his foot was grabbed by the sinking sand and he lost balance. He toppled face first into the sand and was quickly sucked underneath the surface.

Gaara was shocked, he needed to save Naruto! Reaching out with his sand, Gaara grabbed what little of Naruto was still above the surface, his left arm and pulled. The only thing that could be heard was a sickening crunch, a pop, and a scream before the quicksand pits were quiet again. All Gaara's sand brought him was the remains of Naruto's left arm, his fore-arm. Gaara was shocked, why did this have to happen to him!? He had just gained one friend only to loose him just as quickly!

And so for the first time in his life, Gaara collapsed to his knees and hugged the forearm of what used to be his friend. All the while Dog wasn't paying attention and instead giggling at the small orange book that was in his pocket. He was unaware of the tragedy that just took place, and the cries of Gaara were lost on him.

 **Unknown amount of time Later- Unknown Location**

Naruto woke up with a groan, his head hurt and he couldn't feel the forearm or hand of his left arm. Shaking his head he slowly got up, making sure that his legs would support his body weight. Leaning against what he assumed to be the wall, Naruto rubbed his eyes with his right hand and looked at his left arm trying to figure why it was so numb. What scared him was the fact that his entire left arm was gone from the elbow. It was scabbed over but the skin was rapidly growing back, as if the arm was cut off. And so doing the only sensible thing that Naruto could do, he screamed.

After what seemed to be a few minutes, Naruto calmed down and collapsed on the floor, leaning against the wall of whatever room that he was in. The walls seemed to be a shiny type of brass color and they were reflective allowing Naruto to look into his reflections. Getting up Naruto leaned heavily up against the wall that he was on and he started walking. He didn't know where he was but he knew that he could go back the same way that he came in. He would have to find an exit on his own and he knew that it was probably going to be just as unpleasant as the entrance.

The walls were stylized with art and what appeared to be unknown letters that where incomprehensible to his five year old mind. But he got that the pictures were telling a basic story of what appeared to be some person. Was this a tomb of some type? Naruto didn't know but he was getting creeps from this place and he wanted to leave as soon as freaking possible. Although his legs wouldn't take him any faster and he didn't trust them to carry his weight without the support of the wall so he just continued taking it all in.

The hallway ended abruptly and Naruto came to a large room, and he stopped to take it all in again. The room was huge, and in the center of it was what appeared to be a table with items covered in dust on it. But between the table and Naruto was a large chasm that when Naruto looked down he could see a thick black sludge that did not look pleasant to take a dip in. There was a series of platforms and pillars that Naruto could jump to and from to get to the center of the room. So always the risk taker, Naruto looked forward and made the first leap.

It wasn't like there was any way of him getting out going back, so he might as well cross the room. Landing on the first platform there was no problems what so ever. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. Naruto cursed himself for jinxing it when the platform underneath him shifted. He started running and running platform to platform. He didn't stop running and jumping between platforms, although it wasn't enough. He felt the platform underneath him start to fall and he was a bit late on the jump causing him to only grab onto the edge of the last platform but with his lacking strength and lack of two arms Naruto wasn't able to pull himself up. And so when Naruto's grip failed, he fell into the dark sludge below.

 **Well... I hoped that you enjoyed chapter one of this story, I don't know when chapter two will be coming out but expect it some time in the future. I would love some positive feedback and I hope that everybody has a good day/night!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Well here it is! Second chapter, and if you can't guess some of the objects then you need to play Jak again. But I got wonderful feed back for this story and here is the next chapter, I hope that you all enjoy it.**

 **Precursor Artifacts**

 **Chapter 2**

Time seemed to slow down for Naruto, his arms flailing to find purchase as he plummeted back first into the black sludge about a hundred feet below him. He knew that the stuff was bad news from the platforms but the stench was just vile. He knew that it was game over for him when he fell in, and he could see his short life flashing before his eyes as he plummeted to what seemed to be his demise below.

The fun times with the old man, ramen at Ichiraku, the small amount of time that he played with Gaara all flashed through his eyes before he closed them and plummeted into the drink of dark sludge. As soon as his body hit the sluge he knew that it wasn't going to be a painless death. The sludge stung, like it was full of needles that were sticking into Naruto's skin. It hurt, but not as bad as Naruto could have had it. He let out one last breath of air and was sucked farther into the sludge.

Then he started squirming and it started burning, and needles seemingling shot deep under his skin. With whatever air was left Naruto turned around and started swimming up through the sludge. His eyes shot open, blazing red and the black sludge ejected him from the pool, all the way up to the central platform.

Rolling over, Naruto sucked in the precious air that had been denied to him in the sludge. Dark electricity coiled around and through his body and it was agony for Naruto. One more pulse of chakra and the black sludge was gone, but he couldn't feel any more chakra. The red chakra that seemed to have save him was gone, what was that?

Naruto didn't care at the moment, all that really mattered was his life at the moment. But his curiosity returned and he made his way towards the table which he now found to be a sort of casket. So this entire place was a tomb, but who could be so important for this big of a tomb to be built for them? Curious, Naruto did whatever child who hadn't been yet told that graverobbing or disturbing the dead wasn't okay.

He started pushing open the casket. It didn't budge at first, but he kept trying until he collapsed with exhaustion. He knew what chakra was, and that red chakra was helpful seeing as it got him out of the sludge pool. And so trying to channel that, Naruto found that he couldn't, maybe it came out only when he was in danger? Trying to channel any chakra at all, Naruto found that he couldn't.

That was odd, he found that he had always been able to channel chakra of some kind, seening as at five years of age he had more chakra than the average chunin. So where did all of his chakra go? Getting up once again, Naruto started pushing on the plate that kept him from peering into the casket. With a roar of effort, Naruto managed to get the thing to budge just a bit.

It didn't budge again after that, the slab of strange metal was just to heavy to move for a five year old. Naruto sat with his back against the casket and he tried searching for the energy that he had before, because he wanted to see what was inside the casket. After what seemed like an hour, Naruto found it but it wasn't exactly like the red power that he used, it was thicker, and felt like pure strength turned into energy.

And so with all the mental fortitude that Naruto had, he pulled at that red energy, trying to pull it to the surface so he could channel it and use it again. It came slower than the first time, but it seemed to be thicker and gave Naruto more strength. Getting up, Naruto began pushing at the metal lid to the thick casket. It began moving faster than last time, it was as if Naruto's own strength had doubled! It was amazing and in almost no time at all. Breathing heavily Naruto leaned into the grave and looked at what was inside.

Dust was the big thing, the person buried here was so old that all that was left was dust, not even bones remained. but scattered in the dust was metal parts. One long tube of what looked like steel, and it had a handle by which Naruto picked up. It was about as long as Naruto's leg and waist. When Naruto jostled the thing something near the handle that was loose and so Naruto pulled it, and fell flat on his ass when the entire thing recoiled.

A wave of red energy shot out of the tube and the recoil was enough to knock Naruto down.

Hopping back up Naruto cheered, "That was freaking awesome! I love toys!" Naruto shouted and got into a position to do it again without falling on his rear. Pulling the trigger again, Naruto found the recoil changed directions and forced the gun to fly up and hit him in the face instead. Falling and groaning Naruto gave up on trying to fire the thing and instead sealed it in the storage seal on the back of his hand. Grabbing the odd objects in the casket as well Naruto sealed those and moved on. The platforms on the opposite side seemed much more stable and only one fell, meaning Naruto had plenty of time to move on.

The rest of the area was pretty much the same as the area that he was in, and so Naruto moved on, looking for a way out more than anything else. Naruto turned left when he got to an intersection and found himself in a small room that had creepy statues in it. He looked around the room, for some reason not being able to meet the eyes of the creepy statues. They were made from the same brass like metal and had weird bug eyes that seemed to look right through Naruto as he made his way to the center of the room where a small box on a pedestal.

Putting his hand on the box he was surprised when something started clicking inside the box, and he removed his hand hastily before something could happened to his now more valuable than ever last hand. But nothing happened other than the box clicking open and Naruto peeked inside the box, finding an old tome. Reaching up inside and delicately picking up the book Naruto flipped opened to the first page and began reading.

 _ **Personal Journal of the Last Eco Sage**_

 _ **Jak**_

 _I have found that in my long life, that this strange energy that many call 'chakra' has becoming more and more common in people. The ability to use eco is slowly dying out in many people, as strangely their ears are also becoming more and more rounded. I feel, it is my duty as the last Eco Sage of the world to record what Eco is and it's capabilities. Hopefully one day, somebody, anybody with a heart pure enough and with the ability to use Eco will come along and find my tomb and bring Eco back to the world. Hopefully one day somebody will bring peace back to the world that we are experiencing now._

 _I can only hope that the one who finds this does not become manipulated by the Dark Eco, as Gal and Miya were and Erol. For if it were to happen, then the world would surely come to an end._

And so Naruto closed the book there, he placed it back into the box and sealed the box that was protecting the ancient book. He needed to find a way out of there, he couldn't be reading books at a time like that. Sealing the book in the seal on his hand, he left the room. And so with his curiosity at an all time high, Naruto continued on with his journey to get out of the tomb of Jak. Heading down the other path when he got back to the intersection Naruto looked at some of the pictures, which seemed to be telling the story of Jak now that he knew whose tomb he'd just raided was.

But that brought up more questions, was that dark sludge Dark Eco? Why couldn't he feel his chakra any more? And what did the book mean about being manipulated by the Dark Eco? How could something that wasn't alive manipulate you? Was this Eco something like chakra or was it something totally different? Naruto continued exploring the tomb, searching for a way out. He didn't have water and if he couldn't find a way out in three days then most likely he'd die of dehydration and that was something that he didn't want.

He didn't survive that black sludge and make it all this way all for nothing and to only die in the end. With more resolve in mind, he walked down the bronze colored hallways. There wasn't really much else in that little part of the tomb but turning at what seemed to be the tenth intersection in that damnable tomb, he came to a room where there were parts scattered everywhere. Looking around, it appeared that somebody had been down here raiding the place for something but they didn't take anything. Picking up everything and organizing it into things that might or might not be useful, Naruto looked at some of the containers in the corners of the rooms. Different types of glowing liquids were in there and he stopped and pulled the book out, hoping to find out what it was. Maybe this was that type of Eco that the book mentioned.

Flipping delicately through the pages of the large tomb, Naruto found a few entries on the Eco and looking at the different metal drums, the eco he was looking at right now was a liquid type of Yellow Eco. Looking around he wanted to take it all with him, because it wasn't going to help anybody just sitting around in the hall of the dead. But he didn't have enough space in the storage seal on his wrist, seeing as there was only so much that he could take in it.

An idea went through his head, and he searched through the random parts until he found something sharp and he cut a bit of his hair off. Using more of his hair he tied it to the end of a rather small bar and dipped it into the liquid Yellow Eco. Painting carefully on one of his bare legs, Naruto was hoping that the eco could be used like ink and allow him to make a storage seal. After what seemed to be an hours, but what was only a few minutes, Naruto had managed to create another storage on his leg. Grabbing a random metal bar, he tried to seal it, trying to channel the eco instead of his chakra which seemed to be gone.

With a poof of yellow smoke, the bar disappeared and he channeled the Yellow Eco again and the bar appeared. Naruto cheered, it appeared that the Eco was a thicker more viscous and solid version of chakra that could be channeled just as easily as chakra could provided that one knew what it was. Or at least, that was his thoughts, but for now Naruto began taking a look at some of what looked like to be blue prints for some type of vehicle, and another was for some type of robot. But a few more were blueprints for robotic limbs and prosthetic limbs.

This was what Naruto needed, when he got out of the tomb he could use the parts to make himself a prosthetic limb for what appeared to be his arm that was no longer healing at the pace that it was earlier but it was still enough to make sure that he wouldn't be bleeding out any time soon. Storing all that he could, Naruto made another seal for the drums of liquid eco that were in the tomb. Strange things were in this tomb, but it was made in ancient times so who knew what the customs were back then.

Getting up Naruto continued allow the way, feeling a little better now that he had sat down for a little bit even it if had not been for long. So Naruto continued and continued on through the tomb, sealing whatever that he could seeing as it would be more use to him than the dead. He was only five and it probably wouldn't have mattered if he was older, the dead were the dead and objects were more useful to the alive than the dead.

Slowly but surely the brass/bronze metal walls of the tomb gave way to a cave system that went in one straight line. But to Naruto's dismay it stopped at a flat wall and he collapsed against the wall. Maybe it was all pointless? He was going to die here, and he couldn't even try to get past the quicksand because there was a gaping chasm between him and the entire room that he needed to get into. No! NO! That kind of thinking was not the kind of the thinking that got him all this way! He was not going to give up on life and he would make it out of there.

His head hit the back of the stone and something sounded off. It wasn't like hitting a regular stone wall, instead it sounded more... hollow. Something was one the other side! But he wasn't strong enough to break through stone just yet. But maybe that strange metal thing in the casket could! If it could knock him on his ass then there was a high chance that it could break through stone. Pulling the thing out the seal, Naruto pointed it at the stone wall, and fired, falling flat on his rear Naruto checked the damage and was amazing to find that indeed there was a crack in the wall and so pointing the thing at the wall again Naruto fired again.

Only to be disappointed when it clicked instead of firing. He groaned and sat back down, now the thing wasn't doing what it was supposed to. Pulling the other things out of the seal Naruto sat down and looked at the gun. Maybe it was just out of energy? Fiddling with the red thing on the top, Naruto was surprised when it came off easily. Grabbing the yellow one instead, he tried fitting it on to the spot were the red thing had when and it slid right into place, before clicking again and the yellow object slid so that it was on the side of the weapon, sticking up diagonally off of it and the barrel of the object extended a bit.

Grinning to himself Naruto pulled the trigger again and was surprised instead of a force of energy it was a single concentrated bolt of yellow energy that flew from the barrel and chipped the stone wall. So each of the objects did different things? That was interesting, but Naruto didn't dwell on it and instead he began firing at the stone wall chipping it and creating a small hole that he could see out of. Stale cave air came rushing in but it was a welcome reprieve of still musty air in the tomb. The thing clicked again and Naruto groaned. Sitting back down he pulled out the blue object and took the yellow one off, the blue one sliding in the object smoothly before the barrel shortened but multiple barrels appeared.

Naruto fired once and several bullets came flying out of the thing, surprising him. Aiming at the side of the small hole Naruto held down the trigger and a spray of bullets came out, carving chunks out the stone. It wasn't big enough even for tiny little Naruto, and so with a sigh Naruto attached the purple object. It kind of reminded him of the Dark Eco that he fell into, but he didn't dwell on that and instead attached it to the object. What appeared to be a tiny little face appeared on the end of the object, with triangular eyes narrowed in an emotion that Naruto just couldn't precisely put his finger on.

Aiming at the top of the hole, Naruto pulled the trigger and was surprised when he got a fizzle instead of a click. Okay... that was strange. Maybe it was like the blue and he had to hold it? Holding the trigger, Naruto was amazed when a ball of electricity was formed at the end of the object. Aiming carefully Naruto released the trigger and the ball of electricity flew at the wall and obliterated half of it. Naruto's jaw simply dropped, and when he shook the shock off he sealed the object away and began running out of the cave system which appeared to be pretty linear. That is until the cave started spiraling upwards and Naruto ran his good hand along the wall as he slowed his pace and made his way up.

He was forced to shield his eyes from the rays of the harsh sun, but the breath of the hot arid air was the best thing that he'd ever felt seeing as all he'd been breathing was stagnant air for who knows how long. Naruto relaxed for a moment before he realized that he still needed to get back to the old man. So walking around he still needed to get his bearing and find out where the hell he was. So walking he found the nearest civilian and the first time he asked was, "Excuse me mister! I was wondering where I might find the Hokage."

The man gave Naruto a strange look before answering, "You're a little late on the uptake aren't you? The Hokage left a week ago, he should be back in Konoha by now."

Naruto stared at the man before he shouted, "Oh you have got to be kidding me!"

 **I love cliff hangers by the way, hope you enjoyed and have a great day/night.**


	3. Chapter 3

**And so I bring you the third installment of this story, I hope that you enjoy the chapter!**

 **Precursor Artifacts**

 **Chapter Three**

Naruto grasped his head in frustration at what he just heard. The old man had left him? The very thought was absurd but when he gave it a bit more time, it didn't seem so insane. His body was no where to be found, seeing as it was below the surface in some sort of tomb, his chakra felt gone so there was no way for a sensor to find him if even he couldn't find his chakra.

So yeah, the old man had probably been devestated but had left because he had a duty to Konoha. Naruto had come to terms with his situation rather quickly seeing as worrying or freaking out about it wasn't going to help anything.

He needed to stay calm and think about the situation, which wasn't normal for a five year old to be thinking but then again not many five years could be as mature as Naruto, seeing as he'd been through quite a lot. It was just a fact of Naruto's life, he needed to stay mature to stay alive and changing that wouldn't help him stay alive.

So thanking the man for his time, Naruto headed down the streets of Suna, before ducking off into an alleyway and channeling some of the "Eco" he seemed to be blessed with instead of chakra. He grabbed the bag that he just unsealed and opened it, kinda tricky with one arm but he managed. Pulling out a wad of cash that he had from when the old man gave it to him, Naruto counted it all. So he had about five thousand to work with, a sizable amount but Hiruzen and Naruto both knew how frugal the small boy was with his money.

Money was just such a valueble resource, similar to water in a way or food. It was your lifeline until you got more of it and then you needed even more. So Naruto took his money and hit it in one of his pockets, his hand over the money to make sure any pickpockets couldn't take anything from him. He headed out of the alley and onto the main road of Suna, where most of the shops were. He went from shop from shop, looking for what he needed. He made a mental list, he needed new clothes to stay cool when he made his trek back through the desert.

Yeah, that wasn't going to be the most pleseant thing but he would leave at hopefully sunset when the desert would start to cool. He would travel during the night when it was cool and find some place shaded to sleep during the day to conserve food and water. It was a decent plan, one that any civilian of Suna could nod their head to. But there was one problem, for ninja the trip across the desert to the border was one day, the trip for civilians like Naruto was almost three times that.

So he had enough food in his bag already, water was something that he lacked. So his money would have to buy clothes and enough water for three nights of travel, something that would probably translate to four nights seeing as night was shorter than day. So he would need to prepare for about four nights of travel, he knew that he could ration his food but water was really important in the desert.

Anybody with half a brain cell could tell you that. And so with a heavy heart, Naruto set off to get his clothes and all the water that he could get with his money. After about an hour of shopping, Naruto managed to stow away in a back alley near the front gate where he would leave when the sun started setting. Konoha was pretty much in a straight line from the front gates of Suna so as long as he didn't get turned around then he would be perfectly fine.

He had changed into his Suna clothes over his ratty shorts and shirt, he even had a pair of Suna sandals. They were designed to protect his feet against the sand and make it so that he would not sink in the sand quite so easily. It would be really helpful since he was five and he didn't weigh much so he wouldn't have to waste strength digging his feet out of the sand while he was walking. Hopefully the four canteens of water could get him through the nights that he would be traveling in the desert. And after he made it out of the desert he would then swap and sleep at night and travel during the day, hopefully restocking at a stream with his water.

Getting back on his own was a major gamble, but it was one that he would have to take or else he would starve in Suna, and he didn't really belong here anyways. He belonged in Konoha, and he always would, nothing personal against Suna, it was just that he didn't really fit in. He was from Konoha and no matter how nice Suna was to him, he felt that Konoha would always be his home, and how could he be Hokage if he was in Suna?

Waiting in the shade for the sun to start to set, when the entirety of Suna was bathed in the gold and red glow, Naruto knew that it was time to for him to leave. But not before he managed a quick climb to the top of a building to look out over Suna. It was beautiful, seeing the sandstone buildings bathed in the crimison light of the setting sun.

Taking a moment to take it all in, Naruto sighed when he tore his eyes away from it and hopped down to the street level to exit Suna. Walking towards the gate Naruto noticed that quite a few other people were also heading out towards the gates, he guessed that they were merchants. It was pretty obvious seeing as they had carts with special wheels and a few of Suna's goods, special glass vases and other assortment of metal products.

The guards didn't check the people, they only checked the carts and so pretty easily, Naruto was able to make his way out of the city of Suna, saying one last mental goodbye to the place that had changed his life so much in such a short amount of time. There was a jounin and a team of gennin guarding the merchants, probably their first C-rank mission, or just another day for them. It was a few hours until the merchant train took a turn and Naruto kept going straight, not wasting his breath on goodbyes that could be used to fuel his legs.

Nobody came after him when the merchant train went out of sight, which meant that things like this happened often. It wasn't long before the sun set behind the horizon and the night cooled dramatically, with no sun to heat the desert. He could feel himself getting cold and he was thankfull that he bought those Suna clothes seeing as they managed to keep the cold and the heat out, but allowed for his body heat to keep him warm.

Thick white fabric was wonderful that way, and so with the bright moon lighting his way across the desert, Naruto continued on his journey. One that would take almost four nights of crossing nothing but desert. God he was going to get really, really bored doing this. But at the end of those four nights then he was going to be back in familiar territory.

And so clenching his fist and hardening his determination, Naruto narrowed his eyes as he crossed the desert just a little bit faster. He was going to make it home, and god was he going to have a story to tell to the old man, after he demanded unlimited ramen from Ichiraku's. A smirk found it's way onto his face, he wouldnt' fall to this damned desert, no, he was going to wring the old man from every last ryo that he had.

 **Sunrise - Suna Desert**

Naruto found a rock formation that actually housed a cave which he leaned against the wall and pulled out a canteen of water and a energy bar from his bag in the seal. Drinking most of the canteen and eating the energy bar Naruto rested his head against the side of the cave and closed his eyes. He pulled the suna style hat over his face and fell asleep.

He was more tired than he had ever felt in his entire life, and he would have three more nights of this. But he knew that he could do it and he fell asleep with a smirk on his face. What he did not expect was to wake up in that tomb again. Well really he didn't think it was the exact same as that tomb and upon closer inspection, it was completely different. First off, the platform that he was on was larger and appeared more stable. When he looked down, yes there was that dark sludge, the Dark Eco. But there were large tubes lining the room, several of them. But none of them were filled completely, some of them only had miniscule amounts of what Naruto assumed to be the Eco.

Looking up at the ceiling he noticed that four of the tubes had come together in the center to combine into one tube behind him. That tube was completely empty and he could only assume that when the other tubes were full would the last tube become full as well. He looked at the tubes and he made a mental list of the colors.

And then the one things that worried him the most, his arm was back. It wasn't severed from the rest of his body.

"Are you done admiring the place?" Naruto whipped around to the source of the voice and was rather supprised at what he found. It wasn't a person, but more like a large dark orange rat/weasel thing. Naruto wasn't really sure how to describe what it was because he'd never seen something like it before, and he didn't think that it was an actual animal.

"Yeah okay human, what the hell did you do to me?" The rat/weasel crossed his arms and growled although with it's short stature, nearly a foot and a half tall, it wasn't really intimidating.

Naruto was confused and walked over to the rat/otter, "Now what are you supposed to be?"

It growled again and then said, "I'm the Ninetailed Kitsune! What else would I be mortal?"

"Well you don't look like a mountain tall fox with nine tails, you've only got one."

"Don't you think that I already know that!? Tell me, what the hell did you do to me?"

"What did I do to you? I fell in a pool of what's known as Dark Eco, that's all."

The rat/weasel face palmed and sighed, "Of all things my contianer could do, was fall into a vat of Dark Eco. Why couldn't he have fallen into the ocean or something? But no! He decides 'let's fall into a vat of a unknown substance that could kill me!"

"I'm still here you know." Naruto said, reaching over to flick what claimed to be the Kyuubi in the forehead, making it growl and bare it's teeth.

"I know that, and you need to go, it's almost sunset." the "Kyuubi" said and Naruto was ejected from the precursor room.

Waking up, Naruto noticed the red glow of the sunset again and he was covered in a light layer of sand. Getting up and shaking the clothes of sand, Naruto oriented himself and started heading towards Konoha. The entirety was sand, all that he could see, and really it was kind of boring. How could anybody stand to live out here? Other than for the beautiful sunsets of course. His Suna sandals were making it really easy to traverse over the dunes of the massive desert and he was thankful that he had bought them or else he would have had to deal with his feet sinking into the dunes with every step that he took.

And so began the process of repeating the same action for hours at a time, before sleeping some place where the sun would not bother him. He was awfully bored during the travels, and so he dived into his mind as his body was sent into autopilot. What was that thing his in mind scape? The weasel thing claimed to be the Kyuubi, but he wasn't mountains tall and he certainly didn't have nine tails or fearsome power.

Was it something to do with the Dark Eco that he fell into affecting the Kyuubi. But then came the question of how the Kyuubi got there in the first place. The Kyuubi had said that Naruto was his 'container' so maybe it had something to do with seals? But everywhere he heard, the Kyuubi had been slain by the Fourth Hokage, maybe that wasn't true? Just thinking about it all made his head hurt and so he pushed it to the side of his main thought process. Eco and the book about Jak came to mind. Naruto knew that Jak was somebody really ancient seeing as the only thing that survived the test of time was what Naruto thought was his weapon. Just thinking about it, Naruto's hand unconsciously moved towards where the eco seal was and when he noticed he had to stop himself from pulling out the book. He couldn't read at night, even if the moon was full.

He needed to keep his focus on the road ahead of him, and he could read the book when he was in the forests and not in danger of dying of thirst or hunger. That was another thing that Naruto could admire Suna for, being able to survive even with little water and little food. So bringing the eco thoughts back to mind, he could only wonder if the tubes in the place were he met the 'Kyuubi' were related somehow. He could see a bit of color in each one but the middle one which meant that they could all be some type of eco.

Again all the answers lay in the book that was contained in his seal, and he was itching to bring it out. But he stopped himself and continued walking, this was frustrating! He had nothing to do while he was walking! Sighing, Naruto continued on his way until the sun began to rise above the horizon.

 **Three Nights Later- Wind-Fire Border**

Naruto breathed out a heavy sigh, he was out of water and it still didn't look like he had made any progress in making it to the Land of Fire. He shook his head, he was almost out of food as well, he hadn't packed that much and he'd probably have to gather and hunt more food on the way back. Sluggishly making his way across the dunes, Naruto saw something in the distance, it looked green and big and it filled Naruto with hope. Picking up his pace slightly, Naruto could only hope that was well and truly the border between the land of fire and the land of wind because he was done with the desert for years to come.

He was going to be pissed if the moonlight was playing tricks on him again, like that one time with the fake oasis. That was the first and last time that he would eat sand, no matter how tasty it looked. Absently grinding his teeth together, Naruto made his way over to the trees and as they grew in size so did his hope that he would make it back home within the week seeing as the path to Konoha from the edge of the forest was a few days longer than the path to Suna from the edge of the desert. When he came up to the tree he reached out his hand and touched it, and when he felt the rough bark underneath his fingers, Naruto hugged the trees.

He was back! He was back! Naruto cheered as he looked beyond the trees, sure there was a large plain that separated him from the actual forest but he was so excited that he couldn't bring himself to care all that much.

"Now if I could only find some water." Naruto trailed off in his thoughts, now that he was here he would need to put his plan into action. He would need to find food and water before continuing on his path towards Konoha. At least he hoped that he was going the right way to Konoha, because it would suck if he was going the wrong way. Entering the plains at night, Naruto noticed that the plains were less illuminated than the desert and the forest beyond it was even darker. He would have to settle down in the plains before he could head into the forest at daybreak when he could see through the thick leaves of the forest.

Settling down in a rather clear area where the grass was not tall and the moon illuminated the spot, he pulled out the book that Jak had wrote, mainly to see if the moon was bright enough to let him read. But to his surprise, he didn't need the moon to read seeing as the words on the page glowed. Naruto knew then that the words were written in eco, preserving the pages longer and making the words glow in the dark. Smirking at this new found discovery, Naruto began reading through the pages of the thick tome although a quick check of the book, he found that there were over a thousand pages and each of them were about a foot and a half long and a foot and half wide, making for some rather big pages and some interesting sketches.


End file.
